Little or no traffic below 0.05

Consider this before you decrease your max bid all over the place

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arrowman

7:38 pm on Aug 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

Yesterday I minimized the max. cpc to 0.02/3/4 where possible. Today I had almost no clicks on those keywords, including the still active ones ;-)

When I looked at the traffic estimator more closely, I noticed it says <0.1 clicks/day on almost all keywords with a max cpc up to 0.04. When I increase the bid from 0.04 to 0.05 the traffic estimation jumps to a reasonable level (e.g. 10 clicks/day).

Fair enough, 0.05 is what it costs. I guess the lower price is only there to get some free publicity :-)

berto

7:49 pm on Aug 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

On the Adsense side, Google implemented a change several weeks ago where normal four-ad displays might now instead display three, two, or even just a single ad in the ad block. This is done on the fly, depending on the ad inventory, in order to maximize publisher earnings.

Presumably, when an ad block displays fewer than four ads, the lower-EPC ads have been pruned, leaving only the higher-EPC ads.

So, with this new Adsense policy of pruning the low-EPC ads, if you are low-bidding all or too many of your keywords, maybe those low-bid ads are simply not being displayed, or are being displayed less. Fewer ad impressions implies fewer clicks, although not necessarily lower CTR.

Can't prove anything, just a theory.

So, think twice about low-balling too aggressively.

arrowman

8:00 pm on Aug 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

in order to maximize publisher earnings

Well yes, but like all other aspects of the system it's designed to maximize publisher earnings on the Adsense side and minimize advertiser cost on the Adwords side.

The reasoning behind this cunning scheme must be that the overall appreciation minimizes complaints and maximizes Google's stock value.

So, with this new Adsense policy of pruning the low-EPC ads, if you are low-bidding all or too many of your keywords, maybe those low-bid ads are simply not being displayed, or are being displayed less. Fewer ad impressions implies fewer clicks, although not necessarily lower CTR.

That may be true, but it's not just views on the content network that are 0 below 0.05. It's minimal on search as well.